Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Alaska
Alaska: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Alaska?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Alaska Stat. § 13.52.193, Alaska law treats a revocation and a refusal as two different things, and only the refusal settles it.
A revocation withdraws the gift you made. It does not stop anyone else from making the gift for you. Only a refusal does that, and Alaska Stat. § 13.52.187 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Alaska’s own code.
What Alaska asks
What you need to make a refusal in Alaska
- Act
- 2006 revision
- Enforcement
- An unrevoked refusal bars all other persons from making the gift.
- Signing it yourself
- No witnesses required by the statute.
- If someone signs at your direction
- Two adults. At least one of the two must be a disinterested witness; the other may be anyone, including a family member.
- Notary
- Not required.
- Alaska law
- Alaska Stat. §§ 13.52.187, 13.52.193
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Preclusive effect of anatomical gift, amendment, or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Alaska’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (a)
An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by (1) a record signed by (A) the individual; or (B) subject to (b) of this section, another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; (2) the individual's will, whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death; or (3) any form of communication made by the individual during the individual's terminal condition addressed to at least two adults, at least one of whom is a disinterested witness.
Alaska Stat. § 13.52.187
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed under (a)(1)(B) of this section must (1) be witnessed by at least two adults, at least one of whom is a disinterested witness, who have signed at the request of the individual; and (2) state that it has been signed and witnessed as provided in (1) of this subsection.
Alaska Stat. § 13.52.187
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as otherwise provided in AS 13.52.193(h), in the absence of an express, contrary indication by the individual set out in the refusal, an individual's unrevoked refusal to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Alaska Stat. § 13.52.187
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under AS 13.52.183 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in AS 13.52.173 or 13.52.197 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under AS 13.52.177 or 13.52.203.
Alaska Stat. § 13.52.193